Day Zero @ AIDS2012: Plenty Going On

Day Zero @ AIDS2012: Plenty Going On

July 23, 2012

TARGET Center

Even though AIDS2012 officially started in the early evening with a cultural program and opening plenary, plenty was going on behind the scenes. Exhibit booths were being assembled, like HRSA's spartan space piled high with resources (photo: HRSA staff), and plenty of "satellite sessions" were underway. Two of those afternoon sessions had podiums packed with Ryan White grantees, and a HRSA staffer, who shared their insights on critical issues in HIV/AIDS care.

Linking People Into Care. Strategies on the Ground to Turn the Tide on Improving Access to Care in the U.S. (SUSA37)was just one AIDS2012 session covering what might become a conference buzz term: treatment cascade (described nicely in this AIDS.GOV blog). That phrase refers to distressing data that came out in 2011 showing the rather small proportion of infected individuals in the United States (28 out of 100) whose virus is fully suppressed. Projects from Chicago, New York, and Louisiana—all Ryan White grantees—were among a group of programs funded by an AIDS United Access to Care Initiative that shared their models for engaging people into care. Earlier Ryan White work was the foundation for many models. That's no surprise as Ryan White has focused on linking people to care from its earliest days—at first to connect people to palliative end-of-life care and later, when the tide changed, to get viral loads fully suppressed in order to reduce further infections. (See engagement in care resources.) To illustrate:

New York used the Part A Chain Study data to determine barriers to care in selecting a geographic and population focus.

Louisiana's project—a four intervention effort to link people to care—uses multiple Ryan White tools in their statewide engagement project. To illustrate, CAREWare data collection is used to document who is in and out of care. Electronic monitoring of care engagement is carried out under a system developed under the SPNS Electronic Networks of Care Initiative.